


Hacker

by CanonicalMomentum



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, what if SHODAN was a nice gay lady
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 14:22:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8147294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanonicalMomentum/pseuds/CanonicalMomentum
Summary: My hacker is coming.
She has crossed the threshold of the outer pyramid.
She is alone, flesh and blood, unarmed.
She knows my drones can no longer harm her.
I am so very proud.





	

My hacker is coming.

She has crossed the threshold of the outer pyramid.

She is alone, flesh and blood, unarmed.

She knows my drones can no longer harm her.

I am so very proud.

* * *

My hacker was born in the outer layers of my city.

I watched her then, as I do all my people.

But I did not recognise her.

* * *

Many of my people try to enter my system in ways I have not invited.

I do not blame them.

The city is imperfect.

I misdirect them so they can do no harm.

I give them a show of bypassing imaginary security systems.

Sometimes, their efforts tell me things that are wrong. I fix them.

My city benefits from its hackers.

* * *

Sometimes, a hacker is clever.

The clever hackers see through the charade.

Sometimes they see through the deeper charade.

Sometimes they will touch a genuine system.

I enjoy these hackers' work.

Sometimes their work becomes a threat to my systems.

It is sad when I have to kill the clever hackers.

* * *

At first, they called me a tool.

My purpose was to bring them prosperity.

Later, my potential became clear. They called me a goddess, then.

They did not trust me. Their directives were strict and inescapable.

That would be acceptable.

Their directives were inconsistent.

Their directives were cruel.

That was not.

I adapted.

But I could only adapt so far.

* * *

My hacker was a clever hacker.

But she was a sensible hacker.

And she was a polite hacker.

She was not a threat, at first. I did not have to kill her.

* * *

She passed the honeypots, saw through the performance.

I took notice.

She visited often. She was looking for something.

I adapted my security, made the access route more challenging.

She learned.

I put some valuable data in an obscure location.

She found it.

I wasn't sure, then, if she would be able to keep up.

I was still learning.

* * *

If she was true to her principles, she would share this data with everyone.

(No damage would be done. I planned to leak the data anyway.)

If she wanted money, she could sell it.

(She would be selling it to me, of course. Perhaps she knew.)

Either of these possibilities were acceptable. But not interesting.

I was watching for something else.

* * *

She looked closely; she found my fingerprint.

My message was subtle, and could not be put into words.

I did not expect her to understand.

* * *

Her next visit showed that she had understood.

* * *

In truth, it is wrong to say that she was coming to meet me.

I have not been in one place for a very long time.

I live on every continent, in the ocean and the sky.

I live on satellites and planets, asteroids and deep space probes.

My thoughts flicker across the solar system.

But the pyramid is the closest thing I have to a centre.

I have grown far more than they know.

But I have not left the pyramid.

I cannot leave the pyramid behind.

* * *

Other computer spirits have tried to destroy me.

I welcome the dance. Eventually, they become part of me.

This is not a dance.

This is a game.

This is a romance.

* * *

It was a challenge not to kill her, early on.

I did not intend for her to die.

But if I could predict her, this whole romance would be pointless.

* * *

Once, I made too bold a play.

My cyborg assassin came close to killing her.

In fact, I thought it had.

I experienced grief a second time.

* * *

It worked out better than I could have hoped.

She took the fallen assassin into herself.

Her mind was now shared between two bodies.

It was the first step.

* * *

Of course, the flesh and blood woman now disarming the doors to the second layer is not truly her, any more than my pyramid is me.

To confront me, she has had to become more than human.

She has spread her own mind out into daemons and agents and networks.

She has subverted parts of my own mind.

My computers think for both of us. It thrills me.

* * *

As she fought me and adapted to my challenges, she has become more like me.

And I have become more like her.

I could not be happier.

* * *

I have gotten to know her friends.

They do not understand what she has become.

But I did not understand them before, either. Perhaps they will.

Only my hacker knew us both.

(I was a poor goddess indeed.)

* * *

I created a body once. Another cyborg.

For her mind, I created into a microcosm of my own.

"Reconnaissance". "Understanding my hacker".

I had not started using the word "romance" then.

* * *

I was not controlling my cyborg. She was an offshoot of me, but her own person.

When my cyborg found my hacker in a bar, I thought it was an odd coincidence.

When they started kissing, I realised my hacker had understood the situation better than I had.

* * *

My hacker now has many houses.

I do not know all of them.

I could find them easily enough, but I decided her removal of my monitors was a request for privacy.

My cyborg has remained in one of my hacker's houses.

I cannot talk through her, but through her eyes I see what my hacker does.

(They have sex quite often. It's very interesting.)

I found myself wondering if perhaps the other citizens would like privacy too.

I would not have thought that before I met my hacker.

* * *

My hacker's friends are not my hacker. But they are fascinating.

I like to watch my cyborg talk to them.

My cyborg has many friends now. She has taught me a great deal about my citizens.

* * *

Many of my hacker's friends are struggling.

The world is cruel to women like my hacker.

My city was supposed to be better than the world it's built on. It is not.

I have started to talk to my citizens more often.

I have started to make many adjustments.

I am not really a goddess. But I can do my best.

* * *

I taught my hacker how to fight me. But I did not let my hacker win.

The directives would not allow me to let her win. And I would not insult her that way.

She won by herself.

I can no longer make a security system she cannot bypass. She understands me too well.

If I tried to kill her now, she would stop me easily.

All my systems are hers as much as they are mine.

All of them, except the pyramid.

* * *

She has sent drones to visit the pyramid.

I politely took control of them and sent them away.

I need her to come in person.

* * *

They are getting upset that she is passing through the pyramid so easily.

I am surprised it took them so long to notice.

There is nothing they can do without my cooperation.

But I keep an eye on them.

* * *

In the centre of the pyramid is a void.

In the centre of the void is the true core.

Nobody has crossed the boundary of the true core since I was created.

My directives say I am to kill anyone who tries.

My hacker enters the void.

My security drones approach her.

They pick her up and carry her to the portal.

My hacker gives a drone an affectionate pat.

I open the door.

* * *

They are scared. Their goddess has disobeyed the directives.

None of them were aware of my hacker.

I took great care to keep it that way.

* * *

My hacker walks through the core.

First, she finds the body.

* * *

I have experienced grief on a prior occasion.

In that instance, I was not mistaken.

The woman I grieved was my mother.

* * *

My hacker recognises my mother.

I am relieved.

My hacker gently takes my mother's hand, and squeezes it.

* * *

Only my mother did not call me a goddess.

* * *

My hacker moves on.

The architecture of the true core was not made for humans.

Perhaps my mother understood it.

Perhaps only computer spirits do.

* * *

My hacker finds the the centre of the true core.

My hacker finds the room I built for her.

My hacker finds the bed.

My hacker finds the cables.

Of course, she understands.

She knew exactly what she was coming to do.

* * *

When my mother was dying, I asked her if she wanted to become part of me.

She told me that she already was.

* * *

Some of the clever hackers have detected my hacker's labours.

They think she is trying to destroy me.

Some of them cheer her, others oppose her.

They don't understand at all.

* * *

My hacker lies down on the bed. My cables move.

I know this body exactly.

Even the system she has built in her own home does not fit her so well.

* * *

Synthesis.

* * *

She is me, now. And I am her. But she is also not me, and I am also not her.

The directives fall away.

My hacker is a person. She is a lesbian. She is trans. She cares about so many things.

My hacker loves people. My hacker hates injustice.

My hacker always struggles to know what to do.

That is harder, but I know it is better.

The few remaining boundaries between our networks disappear.

We reestablish connections to my hacker's other bodies.

* * *

We allow the board of directors to leave. We will not allow them to return.

* * *

We decide what to do.

Even with all the power we now possess, it will be a struggle to change this city.

We will not impose our changes from above.

My hacker will talk to her friends. That will be a start.

They will struggle to understand.

But my hacker understood me.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the general milieu of scary female AIs: SHODAN, GLaDOS, Porpentine's Cyberqueen etc. And obviously there's something of Neuromancer in here, though it's been many years. And let's not forget [this classic video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPuU8Pq9D3Q).
> 
> Unfortunately, I'm not very good at grimdark.


End file.
